by Romania has been in the news in the last few days. Last weekend 32 people died in a fire in a Bucharest nightclub which had only one exit, and now the prime minister has resigned amid anti-corruption protests in the capital and elsewhere.
If I do end up in Romania, it won’t be Bucharest. I’ve never been there but I can safely say that it’s too big, too noisy and too intimidating for me. Thankfully Romania has a nice selection of medium-sized cities, like Iași, Cluj, Brașov and …
Timișoara. Bet you’ve never heard of it. It’s stuck out on a limb a bit, in the west of the country, closer to the Hungarian capital Budapest than to Bucharest (which is nice, because I’d love to visit Budapest). It’s a compact city, a bit like Wellington, with a similar population. How to say Timișoara? Well, the s-with-a-comma is pronounced “sh”, while the “oa” is one of the famous Romanian mashed-together vowel combinations and it’s pronounced similar to “wa”. Put it all together and you get “timmy-SHWAR-a”.
The architecture is stunning. My two favourite buildings, just from Google street view and one or two other blogs, are Casa Brück and Banca de Scont (discount bank), both on the Piaţa Unirii. One day I’ll see and touch those beautiful buildings. I’ll make sure I do. The city has plenty of parks and green space and is extremely walkable, but it also has good public transport: trams as well as Wellington-style (for now) trolley buses. If I go to Romania I won’t get a car (not initially anyway) because driving there is a nightmare.
I’m lucky to live within (longish) walking distance of three markets here in Wellington. If I was to live in Timișoara there would be more than that, and they wouldn’t only be open at weekends. Markets are clearly a big part of daily life there.
Wellington also has a lot of street art. In July someone painted yin-and-yang dolphins on an electrical box just opposite me, livening up this end of my street in the process. I would have put up a photo of it, but some bastard tagged it two weekends ago. Timișoara is also teeming with street art. They even have an annual street art festival there.
Wellington is the most politically motivated city in New Zealand, which I suppose it should be as the capital. Timișoara came to the fore in December 1989, sparking the revolution that led to Ceaușescu’s demise. The country still has enormous problems but has come on in leaps and bounds since then. That’s all quite exciting to me. Most of the history I hear about seems so remote, but I remember 1989, which was an incredible year politically. And to think that when everything kicked off in Timișoara, I was living in New Zealand, probably lying on the beach at Caroline Bay.
Supposedly Timișoara has a bohemian café/bar where you can lie in a hammock and eat ice cream for about a dollar. Am I too old for that? No, dammit! I suggested to my mum that I buy her a hammock for Christmas. She said she wouldn’t want one because she wouldn’t have time for it. What? How? You’re 66 and you’ve worked hard all your life. How could you possibly not have time? I think I might buy her it anyway.
I mentioned Timișoara, among other places, in an email to my dad. No reply. Assuming he actually got my email, there’s nothing neutral about a no reply. But that’s OK. He doesn’t have to like my plans.
Tomorrow I’m flying down to see my parents. I’ll be flying into Timaru. I must like places that begin with Tim. My cousin’s middle boy is called Tim, and when I was in Boston I bought him a T-shirt with the name of a fairly famous university emblazoned on it, so that it he sees his name when he looks in the mirror. I also got it for him because he’s a smart kid and could go there one day. I think he liked it.
